


The Warm Bloods

by medusa20



Category: The Big Bang Theory
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Family Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-19
Updated: 2012-06-19
Packaged: 2017-11-08 03:19:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/438555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/medusa20/pseuds/medusa20
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU story inspired by allthingsholy's fic on Paradox. A look into life on Nebraskan farm where a disillusioned physicist meets a certain blond girl</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part I

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [& light is only now just breaking](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/9322) by Allthingsholy. 



> Author's note: This story is dedicated to Ladyhouston. The Penny to my Sheldon.
> 
> Cold Blood. In northern and middle Europe, horses were originally bred mainly as farm and working horses; they were bred for strength, the ability to work long hours, thick coats to protect them from European winters and a quiet disposition which made them easy to manage.

Penny loves the continuity of farm work. The consistency. She can expect the same events every day: rise at dawn, set the cows to milking, feed the hens, breakfast then start working with the crops or inspecting the health of the livestock. She has no choice but to love it what with David either driving a truck or cooking meth depending on which side of the law he feels like walking. At least, every 3-4 months, an envelope from David appears. Always cash, always 700 dollars, always taped to her bedroom window. She can't figure out how he climbs the tree without her hearing or seeing him but he does. One third of that money Penny puts in her own savings; the rest goes to the farm.

Penny looks up at the front of the house she grew up in. She clutches the grocery bag tightly to her chest. The windows to her sister's room look exactly the same. This house is slowly becoming the place that Time forgot. David's room remains unchanged; her mother's belongings still present in her parents' room despite a two year passage of time. Now, Jessie's room- a six month shrine to her absence. Penny can't be mad at her sister though she tries. Jessie took her strawberry blond hair and her aquamarine eyes and hightailed it to Hollywood to live the fantasy that she and Penny would spin when they were little girls. They were supposed to go together but Penny stumbled over the roadblocks left by David's absence and their mother's death while Jessie sailed right over them.

She enters the house and heads for the kitchen. She calls out to her father but there is no answer. She begins to prepare the chicken. Penny is humming "Razzle Dazzle" from _Chicago_ quietly to herself when the back door slams. She hears her father take his boots off.

"Penny!"

"Kitchen!" She answers. Her hands move quickly, tucking the wings under the bird, stuffing the cavity with half a lemon and some onions then rubbing the whole thing with butter. Long nights have turned Penny into something of a skilled cook. She's indulged in a subscription to _Bon_ _Appetit_ and she doesn't shy away from the challenging recipes.

The chicken is placed in the oven. Penny turns to find her father standing with a stranger. A tall stranger with a bit more weight on him than he seems comfortable with. There's a cap on his head that may have once been gray but is bleached out to bone. His shirt is deep green with a collar and short sleeves. It's worn but clean. His eyes pierce Penny then skip around the kitchen, burning blue. She notices he needs a haircut- the back kicks out and curls at the nape of his neck.

"Penny, this here is Shelly Cooper." Her father's voice is gruff. "He was working down at Ray's farm for a month. Ray can't keep him on and we need the help for now." Penny and Shelly keep staring at each other.

"I told him he can stay in David's room, get his meals and such." Her father's tone indicates there is to be no argument from her. Penny wipes her hand on a towel then walks over.

"Penny." She offers her hand; he doesn't take it.

"Just Penny?" He arches a delicate black brow.

"Just Penny. Nothing more" She pulls her shoulders back.

"Oh, I sincerely doubt that." He replies.

XXXX

Penny excuses herself immediately after dinner. She heads to the defunct horse stable. The warmth of horses still lingers here. She feels for the switch and the stable light blazes. Penny remembers the horses that were here. She walks past each stall silently saying the names of the mares; Blossom, Pudding, Honey, Knickers, Hank(so named by David for the hank of mane in her eyes at all times). Galahad was the stallion and Leonard their gelding. All sold when it turned out her father had no head for horse breeding and health insurance was falling short for their mother.

Penny faces her project in the middle of the stable. An enormous tractor engine completely in pieces. The deal is this. Her father will deed her the farm for one dollar if she can rebuild the engine and get it to run. Her father is done here. There is too much sorrow and he is done fighting his memories. He wants ocean air after a lifetime of being landlocked. Bob once heard that the ocean has no memory. He wants to model himself after such a thing.

If Penny creates a working engine, she'll get the farm. She can do everything he can- even managed to rope the bull and get it to kneel. She has no time limit. Her father is a patient man. Even though he is anxious to leave, he is relaxed with the one child left to him. He doesn't want her to give up. Penny just wants the horses back.

She has all the pieces organized. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. Everything is grouped but she hesitates to put it together, afraid of encountering failure on the first try. She picks up a piece from the carburetor group and it flecks her hands with grease.

"I saw the light."

The voice startles her. The part falls and a piece she attached last week pops off.

"Horses." Shelly sniffs the air. Penny doesn't answer just reassembles her piece. She has no more tolerance for people who will leave. Her life is already full of them with her father next in line.

"You don't talk much." Shelly crouches next to her, the light of his eyes tugs at her attention.

"Why are you here?" Penny finally spits.

"Got no where else to go." There's the Galveston now in his voice. Over dinner, Penny and her father learned he was from there, had a twin sister, older brother and a religious zealot for a mother.

"Why not?" Penny examines another piece.

"I can help with that." Shelly indicates the engine.

"I suspect you should focus on just helping yourself." This piece clearly belongs in the pile to her left.

"I know things." Shelly's voice is low. Penny finally looks at him. He doesn't have working hands. These hands should be operating on babies' hearts or crushed spinal cords not mucking out stalls or baling hay. Still, the calluses and cuts are there along with the dirt that never comes out no matter how hard he scrubs. There is something otherworldly about him like he knows he's meant for more but can't seem to figure out how to get it.

"No thanks." Penny is tired. "I have to do this on my own."

"Very well." The accent is gone. Penny heads for the stable door.

"We start early here." She reminds him. "Lots to do."

He doesn't answer; she faces him, curious about something.

"What kind of name is Shelly? For a boy , I mean."

He swallows. His Adam's apple traveling the length of his throat.

"It's short for Sheldon."

Sheldon. Penny cocks her head. Suits him so much better. So while he goes by Shelly, he is always Sheldon to her.

XXXX

Penny walks to David's room- now Sheldon's -with extra sets of sheets and towels. The door is closed and, even though she saw him ride off in a tractor with her father to the back field, she knocks.

She opens the door and the room has been transformed. The bureau now resides against the right wall, the bed between the two windows. A large white box filled with comic books is on the floor near the bureau. Penny opens the closet- David's clothes have been long gone. Sheldon's clothes hang y color and length. An enormous black duffle bag is on the shelf with a tag reading APOCALYPSE hanging from it. She closes the door and surveys the room. He must have cleaned all night for there isn't a speck of dust and the air smells fresh.

She walks over to the nightstand. There are books on it with the titles : _Death by Black Hole, The Grand Design, The Book of Nothing, The Universe before the Big Bang._ Each book has multi-colored pieces of paper sticking out like feathers from exotic birds. Penny picks up another book called _The Elegant Universe_ by Brian Greene. She opens it and reads:

_A universe in which time and space are malleable, a universe with more dimensions than we see, a universe, in which the fabric of space can rip, a universe in which everything might be composed of vibrations of ultramicroscopic loops of energy called strings, was a universe that got people excited…_

What is this stuff? Who is this guy now sleeping in her brother's room? If he understands all this, and it is clear he does from the notes in the margins, why is he working on a farm? There is a can of peanut brittle on the nightstand and Penny reaches for a piece. Crepe paper snakes fly out once she removes the lid. She screams and the can goes flying. Penny is showered with money.

"People can't be in my room." Sheldon stands in the doorway, frowning. Penny takes in his long form. Holes in the knees of his jeans, plaid shirt half buttoned and covering a bright orange t-shirt with some type of robot on it. His eyes are flint-covered. Frozen blue. She regains her composure completely unaware that a fifty dollar bill has landed on her head. Sheldon's mouth gives a twitch. He says nothing but continues to stare her down.

"Technically, this isn't your room." Penny replies. "I was just bringing you extra linens" She indicates the pile on the bed. "This is my brother David's room."

"I know. Your father told me about him."

Penny feels instantly betrayed. Her father shouldn't be confiding in strangers.

"Don't worry." Sheldon assures her. "I wasn't really listening and he needs to talk."

Penny isn't comforted by that statement. Now, she is annoyed that this man doesn't consider her father's pain worth his attention.

"Are you some kind of college student?" Penny holds out the book in her lap.

"I've already finished my undergrad and graduate work."

Penny narrows her eyes. He doesn't look old enough to have done all that.

"Then what is all this?"

Sheldon walks into the room toward her. Taking the book from her, he reaches up to pluck the money from her head.

"You have an incredible sense of balance." He tells her. His eyes are warm ocean not ice as they span her face.

Penny walks hurriedly past him, feeling the world tilting under her feet.

XXXX

Penny comes into the kitchen from upstairs. The morning light has yet to penetrate the kitchen which is along the back of the house. Her father is sitting at the table.

"What are you doing inside?"

"Having a second cup of coffee," Her father tells her. "I asked Shelly if he wants some but he told me he promised his mother he wouldn't do drugs." Her father chuckles, something Penny hasn't heard in a while.

"You like him." It's not a question.

Her father rubs his faded hair. "I do. It's only been a week and he's strange as hell- never seen someone wash his hands so much. I also now know more about Superman than Clark Kent himself but there isn't much he can't do."

Penny looks out the bay window near the table. Sheldon is approaching the hen house. He opens the fence and is immediately swarmed by the hungry flock. Penny hears his high-pitched girly scream through the closed window. The feed bucket goes flying and Sheldon bolts out of the hen yard, stopping only to latch the gate. He runs to the peach tree ten feet away and hides behind it.

"Apparently, his Kryptonite is chickens." She tells her dad.

XXXX

She has measured each piston rod for roundness using the inside micrometer. Each rod is perfectly straight. If they aren't, the engine will seize and she is back to square one. Sheldon watches from the door. Watches as she measures torque, slides the pistons into sleeves. She purses her lips in concentration. He knows the science behind her moves- the vectors dance in front of his eyes. He knows the exact circumference of each piston. He can tell her about pushing a door and the closer one is to it, the more force is needed but application like she is doing? Slips right through his fingers.

"The standard torque for a tractor piston is 220 inch pounds." Sheldon volunteers.

Penny jumps at his voice, swears under her breath. A gash now decorates her palm.

"Is there something you want?" She barks. "Why do you always come out here?"

"Curiosity."

Penny wraps part of an old t-shirt around her hand.

"Go talk to my father." Penny urges.

"He's watching the football game. I've had enough of that from the time I was five until I left for college. Longest seven years of my life."

Penny stops tightening a bolt. "Hold on. You went to college when you were twelve!" Sheldon nods.

"Get outta here." She decides he is pulling her leg. Sheldon turns obediently to leave.

"Wait! I didn't mean you should actually get out of here." Penny calls to him.

"You didn't specify." He snaps.

"Just hand me that ratchet."

Sheldon gives her the tool.

"So, Sheldon, you're a college grad at the age of sixteen ad now you work milking cows."

"Heavens, no!" he exclaims. "I had my first doctorate at sixteen. My second at twenty." Penny takes it in while tightening the bolt.

"Okay." Her voice is soft. "Sheldon, you can tell me the truth. They're looking for you aren't they?"

"Who."

"The men in the white coats with the butterfly nets. I'll hide you only 'cause you make my father laugh and we need the help."

"I'm not crazy." Sheldon grits his teeth. "My mother had me tested. I can show you my diplomas and documents." His eyes have that ice-blue cast again which lets Penny know he is serious.

"Why are you here?" She asks.

"Why are you here?" He counters. "Your father told me about Jessie today but, apparently, you're the one with talent. Yet she went to Hollywood and you are building a tractor engine.

Inexplicably, tears well in her eyes. How does this man know the exact pinhole in her armor to snake a delicate hand through and twist her heart?

"My mother died." Penny finally says.

Sheldon nods, flipping the hair out of his collar.

"My father died." He replies. "After that, there didn't seem to be much point."

Penny knows exactly what he means. Why strive for dreams when the person you need to prove it to the most is no longer there? It certainly isn't worth it to prove it to yourself.

"What's the point now, Penny?" Sheldon is holding her steady with the intensity of his gaze.

"Horses." She answers.

The only conversation for the next two hours is Penny's terse requests for tools.

XXXX

Sheldon begins by teaching her genetics. Penny's father listens from the den while one of the many Law & Orders is on the TV. His daughter and his farmhand have turned the dining room into a classroom. There is even a whiteboard. Sheldon started with Punnet squares, drilling Penny until now, all he has to do is mention traits and she can verbally tell him which will be dominant. No paper needed.

Tonight's lesson is not going as smoothly. Something about cross-breeding . Bob never did understand which contributed to his lack of success. But Penny? Penny is horse-crazy and she'll learn if only to prove she can. Shelly is prompting her for an answer.

"I don't know." Penny says.

"How can you not know? I just told you!" Shelly fumes. "Have you suffered a recent blow to the head?"

Penny's father raises his eyebrows- that was harsh.

"No. You just suck at teaching." Penny fights back. Atta, girl! There is the sound of movement from the room.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Shelly cries but he is answered by the slam of the back door.

Penny walks straight for the stable. She flicks on the light and views the stalls. Who is she kidding? She can't do this. If Galahad were still here, she would jump on him bareback and canter out to the fields to ride out her feelings of inadequacy. The only things here are memories and those just leave you in the same place.

Sheldon wanders into the den. Dry erase marker no stains his fingers but at least it hides the dirt.

"Have a seat, Shel." Penny's father offers.

Sheldon likes this burly man. He's direct, doesn't speak in idioms or metaphoric speech. Sheldon is more at ease interacting with Penny's father than with any other man in his life.

"You ever had a girlfriend, Shelly?"

"No, sir."

"Boyfriend?"

Sheldon notes there is no judgment in the question but his eyes widen. "No, sir."

"Don't know much about strong women, do you?"

Sheldon stares down at his hands. "I have a contentious twin sister who could probably give you a run for your money in a bar fight, sir."

Penny's father guffaws and pops some cashews into his mouth.

"She spent most of our youth beating me up." Sheldon continues.

"So , how did you deal with your sister?"

"I ran" Sheldon squeaks. They watch a commercial for a car neither sees any use for though for different reasons.

"Penny tells me you're real smart. PhD and all."

"Yes, sir."

"Shelly, I told you to call me Bob." The younger man just shakes his head. "What changed?"

Sheldon chews on his bottom lip. Somehow, he can't give the straight forward answer he gave Penny to this man who has been nothing but forthcoming with him. Sheldon's answer seems weak and he is full up with paternal disapproval.

"I was done." Sheldon finally says.

"Really?" Bob scoffs, his tone a perfect imitation of his daughter's. "You fulfilled all your dreams? You're mighty young for that."

Sheldon lets himself think of the Nobel , briefly. Another fleeting moment; he's not one to dwell.

"I grew up." He tells his employer.

"Hokum," Penny's father says then turns in his armchair to face Sheldon. "Why, as soon as Penny stops fighting herself, she'll get this farm and I'll get to live my dream."

"Which is?"

"I'm leaving all this. The struggle, the dirt, the smells. I'm going to live by the ocean. Breathe fresh air and go fishing everyday. That's my dream."

Sheldon rises from the plaid sofa. "Is that what you're calling it these days?"

Penny will not cry. She turns from Galahad's stall . On the wall across from her, is the large sledge hammer. She gets it down but drops it immediately. Grunting with exertion, she drags it over to the partially assembled tractor engine. Penny heaves it up but is distracted by the scrape of boots.

"You don't want to do that." Her father tells her.

"Yeah? Why not?" She pants, readying the hammer.

"Then you'll end up like your brother and your sister."

Now that stops her cold. Her arms shake from the weight of the hammer.

"What do you mean?"

Her father moves into the stable. "I know you think they escaped, Pen but they didn't. Your brother runs drugs and Jessie…"

"Jessie's in Hollywood, Dad."

"Jessie's in Pasadena!" Her father yells. "She's a waitress in a goddamn Cheesecake Factory restaurant."

"You've heard from her?" Penny is stunned.

" 'Course I have. I hear from David , too. He come s out to the cornfield like clockwork every Tuesday. Jessie writes letters"

Penny's heart is hollow. Her brother and sister never contact her. David doesn't even write 'Love David' on his envelopes.

"I guess I pissed them off royally." She has to drop the hammer or her arms will break.

"It's not like that , Slugger." They don't want you to see what they've become."

"I'm not much better."

Penny's father fiddles with an old harness. "Fix that engine." He tells her. "Keep up your lessons with Shelly and you will be."


	2. Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hot Blood. Originally bred in warmer climates, where they were used for long distance riding and for racing. A spirited, competitive and strong-willed personality has come through the breeding programs as traits which help them win races.

Sheldon straightens up from releasing an udder from the milking machine. Sweet sufferin' Jesus, his back! He fails to move away quickly enough and is delivered a quick kick to the shin from the seemingly placid cow near him.

"Drat!" he yells.

"Shel-DONN! DINNER!" Penny's voice cuts through the soft moos like a laser through a grapheme sheet. People in the next county probably know it's dinner time here.

Sheldon doesn't want to eat. He is exhausted, dirty and, frankly, grumpy. He would give anything to retreat to his room to play a few soothing rounds of HALO but that is a life he no longer lives. He goes to the back door and kicks off his work boots. Once he enters the kitchen, he is assaulted by smells. Penny's father is already seated and picking morosely at the food in the bowl Penny has placed before him. He gives Sheldon a woebegone look reminiscent of a basset hound. Sheldon's olfactory node finally overpowers the stench of manure that has taken permanent residence in his nostrils.

"Penny, is that…Pad Thai?"

She nods, ladling some in the bowl at Sheldon's spot at the table.

"My dad told me how you used to have a set dinner schedule and Pad Thai was on Mondays so today is Monday and here is your Pad Thai. It wasn't easy finding the ingredient s in rural Nebraska but I managed." She is so proud of herself and Sheldon's exhaustion is replaced by an entirely different stomach-churning feeling. Now, he really can't eat.

"You made this for me?" Sheldon clarifies.

"Well, she sure as hell didn't make it for me." Bob thunders, stabbing viciously at a noodle in his bowl. Penny sits at the table: Sheldon remains standing behind his chair.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Penny's smile is beginning to fade at the corners. He wants to. Wants nothing more than to slurp down every drop of comfort from an old routine. Penny is waiting for him to do just that.

Penny is waiting.

Sheldon doesn't know how but he arranges his features in an expression once described by a treasured acquaintance as "haughty derision".

"I'm afraid I am not hungry this evening. You'll have to excuse me. My apologies."

Bob's spoon clatters into his bowl and Sheldon flees the kitchen. Tomorrow, he will have to leave.

Bob slams into the room, barely giving Sheldon a chance to scramble off the bed before he grabs him by the shoulders.

"Give me one reason." Sheldon is shoved against the wall. "One reason why I shouldn't break every bone in that scrawny body of yours." His grip on Sheldon tightens. "What kind of man are you?"

Sheldon nearly faints at the familiarity of the words. Do all fathers receive a standard book of phrases upon the birth of their first child?

"You got nothing to say? Since you came here, from five in the morning till we go to bed, you haven't shut up. Always talking, talking, talking. Even to the cows!"

"You have to admit they've been producing far more milk. Probably the verbal stimulation has a correlation to…"

Bob slams the wall behind Sheldon with his open palm. Sheldon flinches;- this really is just like home.

Bob steps back. His temper is under control. He's never seen such a look on Penny's face. Her green eyes darkened with disappointment. Silently, she gathered up the bowls and dumped everything down the sink. Then she went to the closet, grabbed her baseball bat and headed for the upstairs. That's when Bob stopped her and told her to go work on her engine. He looks at Sheldon who is visibly shaken by this onslaught. He is blinking rapidly, he is pale and his breath comes in gasps.

"Son," His use of the word causes Sheldon to close his eyes. "I don't know what you're hiding from." Sheldon open s his mouth to answer but Penny's father holds up a hand. "I don't want to know. A man is entitled to his secrets so long as it's nothing illegal or dangerous- and I know that look, believe me- but, at some point, it will have to stop."

Sheldon tugs down his Batman shirt and gives his head a shake.

"This wasn't part of the arrangement." He looks right at the farmer.

"The arrangement!" Bob barks. "You think it was part of _the arrangement_ when my wife developed a leaky valve and nothing they did fixed it? Countless operations including replacing it with a pig valve then infection set in. I can tell you I did not sign up for that but life isn't about arrangements."

"Sir, I don't understand."

"You damn well do understand! You understand that you hurt her. Needlessly. You understand that, even though you're hiding, Penny finds you and that scares you more than what you're running from."

"Finds me?" Sheldon is baffled. Bob decides to be cryptic now?

"Yeah, Shelly, she _**finds**_ you. I may not have your fancy degrees or Penny's heart but I was married over twenty-five years. You learn a thing or two. When you're teaching her about breeding or strong theory…"

"String Theory." Sheldon corrects.

"String Theory." Bob grits his teeth. "I hear the real you in your voice. The brilliance that is beyond belief. When you held that baby chick, even though it terrified you, I saw it in that tight smile you gave her. When the two of you work on that engine and you watch her. It's like you're trying to memorize her."Sheldon has never had to memorize anything in his life and Penny is indelibly burned into his brain.

"You spy on us, sir?"

"I prefer to think of it as a fatherly duty." Bob explains. "Penny is pretty, you're not so bad if you got a haircut and empty stables at night can be very.." he coughs. "enticing." Sheldon blushes from his scalp to his toes.

"It's not like that. I would never. Penny."

Bob waves his hand; he doesn't want to go down that road.

"I can be gone in an hour. I just have to pack." Sheldon offers.

"Gone?" Bob cries. "Oh no. You're not getting off that easy. The running stops for now. You **will** fix this."

The two men glare at each other. A voice in Sheldon's mind whispers that he has a Master's and two PhD's and he should not have to do this. His spine stiffens. Bob notices the change in his stance and a wry grin crosses his face.

"Very well. I will go apologize to Penny now." Sheldon moves to leave.

"Hold on, Shelly." Bob puts his hands back on Sheldon's shoulders and Sheldon struggles not to flinch at the contact. "You go near Penny now, you're likely to get a wrench to the head. It's not that simple."

Sheldon silently agrees. Nothing about human relationships is ever simple.

"Tomorrow, you come with me." Bob gives Sheldon a not so gentle shove. The physicist bounces back onto the bed.

"Where are we going?" Sheldon bleats.

Bob stands in the open doorway.

"To see a man about a horse."

XXXX

When Penny comes down the next morning, there is no sign of her father or Sheldon. Secretly, she is hoping her father is burying the praying mantis look-a-like out in the back forty until the note on the counter catches her eye.

_Penny,_

_Sheldon and I are gone for the day. Don't hold dinner_

_Dad_

What the hell time did they leave? It is only now just reaching 5:30. She came in from the stable around 2 after getting the entire engine together but for the crankshaft. The hurt had run out by then and the crankshaft was the last piece needed to make it run. By that time of night, Penny just didn't have it in her to face more rejection.

Why she even cared about Sheldon and his stupid dinner is beyond her. The two of them had been circling each other at arms length since he had arrived. The cows rattle their chains, yanking Penny from her thoughts. Whatever time the men left, they so kindly left their chores for her as well.

XXXX

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Penny."

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Penny."

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Penny."

She flings open her bedroom door. "Sheldon. Are you KIDDING me!"

He looks down at her Hello Kitty flannels. His eyes are silver discs in the moonlight.

"Are you aware it is after midnight?' Penny continues. "Where have you guys been all day? Did you know I just fell asleep? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Sheldon takes a deep breath. "I am aware it is after midnight. My whereabouts today will become apparent very shortly. I did not know you had just fallen asleep as I do not possess the gift of foresight, which is pure nonsense anyway."

"You missed one." Penny snaps. Sheldon cocks his head.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Penny prompts.

"I was unaware that I was looking," He does finger quotes, " at you in any particular way."

"Whatever." Penny grumbles and goes to close her door.

Sheldon stops it with his palm. "Please put on some shoes and a jacket and come with me."

"Why?"

"Must you always argue? Can't a man make a simple request and have it be fulfilled."

Penny runs her tongue over her top teeth, "No."

Sheldon chews his upper lip then tries a different approach. "Would you care to accompany me on a moonlit stroll. There is something I would very much like to show you."

Now, that's more like it, she thinks, pulling on her sneakers and a multi-colored sweat-jacket.

Once they are outside, Sheldon wraps his long fingers around her hand.

"It's dark." He responds when she raises questioning eyes to him.

"I was born here." She says but twines their fingers nevertheless.

He leads her toward the stable. Her tractor engines crouches inside waiting to be brought to life. Sheldon doesn't turn on the lights but circumvents it easily enough.

"You finished the engine."

"Almost." His hand is warm. There is a callus on his right thumb. He keeps that thumb pressed firmly to the top of her hand and it is not her sweat jacket that is keeping her warm.

Behind the stable lies the paddock. Her father designed it so the horses could run in and out of the stable at will while still being contained. Sheldon pulls her toward the paddock. Penny think she hears footfalls but the buzzing in her head from Sheldon's assertive grip on her hand prevents her from focusing on the sound.

"Do you see it?" Sheldon asks. They are leaning on the paddock gate. Penny's eyes adjust to the watery glow from the moon.

At the far end of the paddock is a shape so dark it could be night incarnate. Penny doesn't want to believe that it is real but then a soft whinny travels forth.

"Oh My God! Sheldon!" Penny climbs up on the gate, her hand digging into his shoulder for balance. What is it with these people and their attraction to his shoulders?

"Sheldon, do you know what that **is**?"

"Indeed I do, having spent most of my day with it. We are looking at the male version of equus caballus. Class: Mammalia, Phylum: Chordata, Kingdom: Animalia…"

"Yeah, yeah, Sweetie, that's great." Penny waves a hand in his face. "Sheldon, it's a freakin' Arabian! Pure black."

Penny begins to climb into the paddock but Sheldon grabs her around the waist to hold her back.

"Penny, I advise you to wait." The horse makes a whuffing sound and Penny can tell its ears are laid flat back.

"First of all, " Sheldon's breath is hot under her ear. "He's not pure black- there is a white star on his forehead. Second, he is only halter-broke not saddle-broke. Third, he has a nasty temper and …"

The horse suddenly charges them and Sheldon has just enough time to yank Penny over the gate before it rears up in an awesome display of equine power and trumpets loudly.

"Wow!" Penny pants. Sheldon's arms are still around her. The physicist is pressed close behind her and she can feel his heart thudding in his chest. "I love him."

Your father said you would." Sheldon says dryly. He releases his hold on her and Penny is suddenly lonely again.

"Wait." Penny reaches blindly for Sheldon's hand. "Is he…is he mine?"

"Do you accept my apology?" Sheldon meets her fingers in the darkness.

"You bought him for me? How?"

"I wasn't always a farmhand." Sheldon's voice is soft in the darkness. The stallion has wandered away from them again, having asserted its dominance.. "At one time, my living expenses comprised only 46.9 percent of my income. Furthermore, I had garnered numerous academic awards, many which came with monetary enhancements."

Penny lets this words sink in. Over the past few weeks, Sheldon's manner of speaking has become more formal, couched in multi-syllable words and complex sentence structures. On impulse, she turns and hugs him.

He stands there, not at all sure where to place his arms. Penny smells of lavender, of sunshine, of possibility. Gingerly, he places his arms around her.

"Thank you, Sheldon." The feel of her lips against his neck sends jolts of electricity through his central nervous system. His cerebral cortex is awash with broken images of Penny's hands, her raised eyebrow, the tilt of her neck and the sweep of her tongue over her lower lip. He now understands what her father meant about empty stables. Sheldon steps back to free himself from the embrace. Penny's hands have traveled to caress his neck. She lifts her head from the curve of his shoulder.

"You cut your hair." There is no surprise in her voice. Just flat acceptance. Sheldon nods. In this light, he can make out the soft outline of her lips. He wants to trace them with his index finger but his hands have other ideas and land on her hips.

"When?" Penny sighs.

"As soon as we are done here." Sheldon leans toward her.

She could kiss him now. Kiss him breathless. She could let her hands slip along his waist, drift down but stop just above. She could let him run his lips along her neck, curl his tongue in her ear until Penny thinks she'll faint. They could sink down on the soft straw and she could let herself feel him grind his desire into her through their clothes. Sheldon's lips are fractions from hers. His breath tickles her nose with peppermint. She could let herself fall even deeper into him. Impossibly, Sheldon manages to move even closer without touching his mouth to hers. She could do this. Her head tilts.

But what would be the point?

"Then you should be on your way." Penny takes a full step back and the coolness of the night envelopes them.

"Would it make any difference…" Sheldon begins.

"No, "Penny interrupts. "It would make no difference at all."


	3. Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warm Blood. Warmbloods are breeds that fall between cold and hot bloods. In particular, they have the athletic build and performance of a hot blood, with the even temperaments of a cold blood.

Spring is a busy time on a horse farm. The mares foal at night so Penny moves through her days in a haze of exhaustion. Her father stayed with her through the early months. He sold off the cows and all the milking equipment though Penny refused to let him get rid of the chickens. The two of them went to auctions looking for mares and finally settled on a pure white, a palomino and a chestnut pinto with eyes so blue it hurts to look at them.

Penny followed Sheldon's charts and financial plans to the letter. She monitored her mares carefully for estrus then sent Darth Vader out to stud. Eventually, she acquired a small staff, put up notices for riding lessons and services for boarding horses. As time went on, the red ink in her books slowly was replaced with black. Her father calls her every other day. She does not hear from Sheldon.

One day, Penny is leaning in the smaller paddock fence watching the pinto , Galveston, with her new foal, Flash. May brings perfect weather to Nebraska. Penny's hair matches the mane of her palomino since she is out in the sun so much. In the next paddock, Vader(as she calls him) runs unhappily around. He bucks and twist to remove the saddle on his back. Occasionally, he stops to peer over the fence at his latest sire. The stallion has taught Penny endless patience. Soon, she will get him to knuckle under. He takes a bridle but each time she tries to ride him, he throws her off then snorts as if to tell her that is where she belongs. Eventually, they'll get there.

The colt totters on legs too big for its body. His brushy tail doesn't look capable of holding the 17 vertebrae that all Arabians have. Since her last thought is a fact from Sheldon, Penny isn't really all that surprised when a pair of pale, long forearms lean on the railing next to her.

A sculptured hand is holding an envelope out to her. Was there always that freckle on the left wrist? She takes the offering- the letter inside speaks of congratulations, nominations, formal wear, an acceptance speech and Stockholm.

"Did you come all the way from California to show me this?" Oddly, Sheldon emails her father on a regular basis to tell him of his research at Caltech and his attempts to reassert himself in the world of academia. The science is beyond Bob but not the physicist's need for fatherly guidance. The result is that Penny is well aware of what Sheldon has been doing since he left. Her father has deemed it necessary that she know.

"I did."

Penny faces him and is, once again ,stunned by eyes that make the sky over her appear washed out. However, she has too much practicality bred into her to let herself get lost in the romanticism of the moment. Sheldon has power over her and they both know it.

"Congratulations. You won it." She hands the letter back to him. Sheldon clasps his hands behind his back. Penny's eyes get lost in the swirling red triangles covering his torso.

"What's the point now, Sheldon?" Penny echoes a long ago conversation while crossing her arms. Crossing her heart. He reaches out to grasp between his fingers a piece of golden hair that frames the side of her face.

Behind her, Darth Vader's saddle lands in the dirt.

_Fin_


End file.
